A ban on climbing Uluru, the world-famous landmark in the Australian outback, comes into effect this weekend, prompting hundreds of tourists to flock to the holy site on Friday for the last chance to scale the rock.
Uluru, also known by its English-language name Ayers Rock, is a 550 million-year-old sandstone monolith that has long been a sacred site of the Pitjantjatjara or Anangu, the Aboriginal people of the area.
As a result of its significance in Anangu culture, members of the indigenous group have called for the monolith to be closed to climbers since 1985, when the park was returned to indigenous control. Last year, more than 370,000 people visited Uluru, with around 13% of those who visited during that period making the climb, park authorities said.
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The Anangu say that Uluru has deep spiritual importance as a route their ancestors took.
“This is our Tjukurpa [our cultural inheritance], our law and our stories, from long ago,” said Sammy Wilson, a member of the board of joint management of the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park. “It is an extremely important place, not a playground or theme park like Disneyland,” Al Jazeera reports.
Australia’s Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt added that tourists flocking to Uluru is akin to “a rush of people wanting to climb over the Australian War Memorial”.
“Our sacred objects, community by community, are absolutely important in the story and the history of that nation of people,” he said on AFP.
After the National Park’s board voted unanimously in November 2017 to bring an end to climbing at the site, Australian officials announced that an official ban would take effect on 26 October 2019 - this Saturday - prompting thousands of visitors to flock to the site in the months before its closure.
On Friday, the final day of opening, the climb opened to visitors three hours later than its usual time of 7am after park rangers “deemed it was too dangerous because of high winds”, says Al Jazeera. The last chance to climb the rock was at 4pm on Friday.
The implementation of the ban has come as a relief to local Anangu people. “The burden will be lifted as of today. I can feel it,” Donald Fraser, a local elder, told the BBC. “Now is the time for the climb to have a good rest and heal up.”
